FARON’S BIRTHDAY
Faron Young was born 77 years ago today in a little two bedroom rental house in Shreveport, Louisiana. His sister Dorothy remembered standing out in front and telling people who came by, “We got a new baby brother.” She told me, “All the kids in the neighborhood liked to come over and play with the baby. I remember Mama used to put him in a big wicker chair out front there on nice days, and cover him with–put pillows all behind there. Our job was to watch him. Of course, all the kids in the neighborhood came over to play with him.” (more…)

MARTY ROBBINS AT THE DAYTONA 500
February brings NASCAR’s Daytona 500 race. Marty Robbins ran that race in 1973 and 1975 and was a broadcast commentator in 1976. He described the first race as follows: “I was gonna pass the guy on the inside, and coming off the fourth turn there’s a bad hump, and I had dropped back about three or four feet, just out of sight of the corner of his eye. And when you hit that hump, it kind of throws you to the left maybe a foot or two. You’re probably doin’ a hundred seventy-five maybe, comin’ out of there. I was going a little too fast to be down in that lower lane, see. Well, he didn’t see it, and it wouldn’t have made any difference if he had seen me, (more…)

FARON YOUNG AUDIO BOOK
I’ve been talking with a production company about publishing Live Fast, Love Hard as an audio book. I would pay production costs and then earn royalties on sales. The company would distribute and sell the book via the Internet, both as an 8-CD set and as a downloadable e-book. I’m wondering whether there would be enough of a demand to make it worth my while. The CD set would sell for around $35, and I don’t know about the e-book.

EDDIE CRANDALL
I’m working on chapter six of Twentieth Century Drifter and am up to 1956. I went to the Internet to learn something about Eddie Crandall, who became Marty’s manager in January. (more…)